Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor

One of the most mythic and potent journeys of our time, up the Mekong River through the exquisite, complicated terrain of Vietnam and Cambodia to the great ruins at Angkor - the magnificent Khmer temples built from the 9th-13th centuries AD that are being painstakingly restored deep in the Cambodian jungle.

Director Les Guthman travels by boat up a river whose raw beauty and power were celebrated by Marguerite Duras in the 1920s.

But in our time it became known as "the river of evil memory" as it coursed through Southeast Asia in the second half of the 20th century.

Today, the river in Vietnam is filled with the vibrant life of a young nation free of a century of war. In Cambodia the past weighs far heavier. We travel up the Mekong passed Phnom Penh, once called "the beguiling beauty of SE Asia," toward the Laotian border in search of the almost-extinct fresh water dolphins of the Mekong; then return back to the capital and head northwest up one of the world's unique natural wonders, the Tonle Sap River, and across the great Tonle Sap Lake, one of the planet's most abundant fisheries.

In Angkor, World Monuments Fund experts describe their 15-year restoration of one of the jewels of a city called "the eighth wonder of the world," the 12th century palace complex of Preah Khan. And as they take us on an insider's tour of Preah Khan, along with the other major sites of Angkor Wat, Bayon and Banteay Srei, we learn that the story of their work in Angkor is not only a story of the rebirth of Angkor after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge Era, but it is also a story of the rebirth of Cambodia.

A stunningly filmed high definition odyssey up a river far distanced in time from the corridor into the heart of darkness portrayed in Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now."

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I wanted more time on the river

I bought this for my daughter, who, despite being only 20 years old, made a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam by herself several years ago. You will probably find the $19.95 cost to be worth this beautifully filmed travelogue. The trip starts in My Tho, a Vietnamese city just inland from the mouth of the Mekong Delta, but I didn't get my bearings because I never saw the city. From there the trip moves rapidly towards Vietnam and into Cambodia, rarely pausing, until you approach the border with Cambodia. During this leg of the trip at times I felt cast adrift, not knowing where along the river I was. Once into the Cambodia the Mekong seems to become murky and a pall seems to hang in the air. I felt as if this was a trick being played by the filmmaker in order to make a point of the differences one will experience when crossing the border. At times I wished to be able to just watch the scenery and not be intruded on by constant narration. (One narrator was an attractive Swiss woman named Simone Kauffman, who, interestingly, seemed to speak English with an Asian accent.) I was left wanting more time on the water and less time in the temples of Angkor, where the film lingers overlong. However, the film is about a trip to Angkor; I just wanted to spend more time on the journey. February 23, 2008

Nice beginning... overall.. a disaster

The DVD skips... for starters.
An initial nice, narrative journey turns into a showcase for two effete snobs who 'lord over' what should be a pleasant excursion. Also, the DVD does not begin in Saigon, but distal from there. I have been to Saigon...and the Mekong. This is a major disappointment.
Seek something better.
September 10, 2007

Piont Of View

I believe this give more detail about History Mekong and angkor OF Cambodia,People in the world must see this.This is treasure hid in the world. It's all on DVD (Churning the Sea Of Time: A Jourey up the Mekong to Angkor.) June 7, 2007

Well done

This DVD has some good footage (and commentary) of the Mekong Delta up into Cambodia, as well as the Angkor ruins. June 4, 2007

Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong of Angkor

This is a beautiful film. Unfortunately it is marred somewhat by the narrator's glaring misprounuciation of key place names like "Angkor" which he persists in calling "angor" despite the fact that some of the experts featured pronounce it correctly. He also calls the temple Banteay Srei something like "Banteay Serei, which has a completely different meaning in Khmer. In addition, he makes a glaring error in his pronounciation of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta town My Tho, as most foreigners do. It would have been quite simple to check and correct these errors prior to release of the film and one has to wonder why such an apparently professional producer did not bother to do this. I still recommend the film highly, in part because there are no real alternative choices for those interested in Cambodia and the Mekong Delta. April 13, 2007

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